Smart Business Magazine, December 2017

CELEBRAT I N G 2 0 Y E A R S Im proud of the way the university has been able to embroider itself into the fabric of the community and the partnerships weve germinated with for profit and not for profit organizations RONALD BERKMAN PRESIDENT CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY December 2017 Smart Business Cleveland 57 We have a very strong partnership with them he says Both Campus International High School an international baccalaureate education program and MC2STEM High School are now on our campus About 75 percent of the students at MC2STEM are minority students and theyre receiving a rigorous STEM education Berkmans approach to all of these has been proactive and often pragmatic You have to look at it not as a shortterm proposition but as something that will require attention and nurturing he says Its easy to initiate partnerships its much more difficult to sustain them So you go into it with a mindset of sustenance Second you need to recognize both parties will get a positive yield from the partnership but the yield doesnt necessarily have to be equal for it to be a good partnership And third all the partnerships have really put the students out front Theyre structured in a way to clear a greater runway for our students Berkman credits a strong CSU Board of Trustees as a key to many of these initiatives effectiveness Ive really been blessed in the years Ive been here he says I didnt have to do much to encourage them to be engaged in the mission of the university Thats something very special about this whole community and the board They feel a sense of investment in the purpose of the university Plot a way forward This same commitment goes for Berkmans soon to be successor whomever is named You want people who are committed to the mission of the university Berkman says We serve many first generation students 34 percent of the student body and have the largest percentage of students in the lower income quartile of any university in Ohio nearly 11 percent of its total enrollment Our mission is to find ways to make up for some of the gaps and find a way forward to these students to be successful In identifying the next leadership you need to be able to select people who share those values This means ensuring an affordable education With annual tuition and fees for in state students at less than 10000 per year under Berkmans watchful eye the cost of an undergraduate degree has decreased by more than 3350 annually through a combination of more scholarships grants and incentives to graduate in four years It hasnt been easy leading CSUs first capital campaign to its 100 million goal two years ahead of schedule and doubling the universitys endowment but Berkman is confident that whomever succeeds him will continue the progress That includes improving graduation rates which have increased 60 percent during Berkmans tenure and recruitment which last year saw the largest freshman class in CSUs history with 1900 first year students and increases across the board in GPA and ACT scores Its been an evolution and transformation Berkman says Ten years ago the university was not on the radar screen for many families for possibilities for their children I think thats changed dramatically The question for many families who are contemplating where their kids might go and where theyll get the best return on their investment has become not Why Cleveland State but Why not Cleveland State These successes and many others have not gone unnoticed Earlier this year the Brookings Institution ranked CSU 18th in the nation among public universities that provide social mobility for their students and conduct vital research that benefits society CSU was the only Ohio university ranked in the Best of the Best category which included only 20 percent of the 342 universities studied That research also earned CSU praise from The Chronicle of Higher Education which ranked

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